Many portable electronic devices such as, for example, smart phones and tablet computers are capable of recording audio data using integrated microphone transducers. Audio recordings may be made independently or in conjunction with another function, e.g., recording video data, recording user gesture data, or, more generally, in conjunction with processing any selected class of computer-executable instructions. Such portable electronic devices often include one or more output devices (e.g., a display, a loudspeaker, a haptic output unit) suited for providing a user-detectable alert from the device.
When recording video, a user can readily observe recorded video in real-time and without requiring a separate (e.g., accessory) device. For example, a display on a given device can render a video as it is recorded, allowing the user to identify problems with or impairments to the recorded video in real time. For example, a user can perceive poor lighting, a subject being too close or too far from the camera, excessive vibration, and so on, by glancing at the display.
For audio recordings, however, a user may be unaware of audio impairments and conditions affecting the quality of the sound until listening, after recording, to the recorded audio. Such conditions may include, for example, an occluded or a failed microphone, wind noise across a microphone port, ambient noise or reverberation obscuring a desired audio source, or unintelligble speech or other user utterances. For a scripted or planned recording, a user may have to re-record all or a portion of the impaired audio track. However, impairments to recordings of unscripted or spontaneous audio sources may render the audio data unuseable, despite that such recordings may be irreplaceable.